Something Borrowed
by PeoniesandPoppies
Summary: A prequel to 'When The Snow Falls'. Gray makes an exchange as a silent promise to Juvia that he will return.


**Something Borrowed**

One shot based on a theory I saw going around Tumblr from baeconenit.

I hope you enjoy!

* * *

A massive pile of clothes towered before her, casting a shadow over the lush, green grass.

It was laundry day again.

The weather had heated up quite a bit, making Gray's stripping habit even more troublesome than usual.

At this rate, every day was going to have to be laundry day.

Juvia warned him to try his best to keep his clothes on during training today because unfortunately, the clothes on his body were his last clean clothes until the others dried.

In a giant wash bin she scrubbed the clothes one by one before wringing them out and setting them into her basket to be hung.

Where she was sitting, she had the perfect view of him as he trained.

She mindlessly scrubbed the clothing underwater as she admired his athletic physique in action.

The way his muscles tensed and rippled beneath his exposed skin was hypnotic.

He had already lost his shirt, but she expected as much.

She hoped he would be able to resist ripping off anymore layers.

This town was small and quiet, but they still had neighbors. Public nudity probably wasn't the best way to establish good relationships.

She reluctantly ripped her eyes off of him to put her full attention on the task at hand.

As quickly and efficiently as she could, she washed the pile of laundry.

She noticed from a stolen glance that he was subconsciously grabbing at his pants, which meant that soon they would be off.

She scrubbed faster.

"Gray Samaaa! No!" She dropped the top she was washing into the bin and stood to her feet.

The damage had been done.

Out in the warm open air of summer, displayed for all of nature to see, was Gray's perfectly sculpted body.

Not only had he ripped off his pants, he ripped off his underwear.

He looked down at himself and sighed.

"Not again..."

He went to grab the discarded items, but soon discovered that luck was not on his side.

His clothes had landed in a lone mud puddle a few feet away.

He slumped his shoulders tiredly and groaned as he ran a hand through his disheveled, raven locks.

Juvia scurried past him and snatched the drenched, muddy clothes from the puddle.

"Gray Sama..." She began.

He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, not at all worried about his state of dress.

"I know, I know. I tried. Sorry."

The apples of her cheeks wore a pretty crimson as she averted her eyes.

"Juvia knows. Stay there. Juvia will bring you something to put on."

He waited out in the middle of their back yard as she ventured into the cottage.

When she returned, she was carrying a black, folded item of clothing.

He accepted it, thinking it was one of his boxers.

When he unfolded it to pull it on, his face set aflame.

"LIKE HELL I'M WEARING THAT!" He exclaimed.

She puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms, looking more cute than anything.

"Gray Sama, it's just shorts."

He shook his head and thrusted the clothing back at her.

"No way. I'd rather be naked."

She tossed the shorts back to him.

"You can't stay naked."

He put his hands on his hips like a child challenging it's mother.

"Why not?"

Before she could answer, something answered for her.

A shrill cry was heard from their left.

Both of their heads snapped around to look.

Their elderly neighbor, Ms. Winnie, had come out to tend her garden and ended up getting an unexpected eyeful of Gray.

She was clutching her chest and looked near ready to pass out.

Her daughter, Tabitha, came out to see what the fuss was about.

When she saw Juvia and Gray stiff as ice, looking guilty as sin, she gave them a disapproving look.

Once she escorted her elderly mother back inside and shut the door, Juvia slowly turned to Gray.

"Juvia believes that should be enough to answer your question."

Without a word, he plucked the shorts from her hand and quickly pulled them on.

"See? It's not so bad, is it?" She smiled sweetly at him.

He looked away from her and crossed his arms.

"When will my clothes be dry?"

She bit her lip and twisted in place nervously.

"Juvia thinks, maybe after dinner?"

He hung his head in shame.

He had to wear Juvia's shorts all day.

Normally he wouldn't care. Clothes are clothes, right?

Right.

But these were Juvia's shorts.

That made things different.

Living with her for these past couple of months had been changing him and he was beginning to think like her a little bit.

The idea of wearing her shorts felt... strange.

Like he had gotten into her pants in a sense.

It just felt weird.

He hoped that she wasn't thinking what he was thinking.

She hadn't said it out loud, so he thought that maybe he was in the clear.

She took the muddy clothes back to the wash bin and continued her work.

Gray decided to end training for the day. Last thing he needed to do was lose the shorts, too.

In just a pair of tiny shorts, he couldn't exactly go anywhere, so he was forced to spend the day in the cottage.

After hanging the clothes to dry, Juvia decided to make lunch.

Gray sat in the kitchen with her as she prepared the food.

"Do you want help?" He figured he would ask, since he had nothing better to do.

She shook her head, causing her long, sea blue waves to bounce delicately around her face.

"Juvia can do it, Gray Sama."

She enjoyed doing things for him and took pride in completing these tasks alone.

It was her way of proving that she was wife material.

After moving in together, although he refused to call it that out loud, he learned a lot about her.

The way she spoke, moved, thought, her motivations, hopes, dreams, most of which were about him, but not all.

He was beginning to understand her, which was kind of scary for him.

He was already experiencing unfamiliar feelings for the quirky water mage before, but it seemed the more time he spent with her, the more he felt for her.

It all started on Tenrou, this new feeling.

It was small, barely noticeable at first, but after his talk with Erza during the Grand Magic Games, things had started clicking for him.

That discussion made him think about how she made him feel and he soon realized that he was in trouble.

He had known for a bit that he had feelings for her, but he just couldn't allow himself to give into these feelings just yet.

As long as E.N.D and Zeref are alive, nothing is safe. Nothing is certain.

So, even though his feelings for Juvia grew with each passing day, he had no choice but to ignore them and focus on his promise to Silver.

The day went on peacefully.

Gray got in a short nap after lunch, as did Juvia.

After their nap, he took a shower and she did some knitting.

When the sun began to set, Juvia started dinner.

Once again, Gray sat at the table to keep her company as she cooked.

He wasn't home all that often.

He made frequent trips to Porlyusica's for his dark marks, a fact that was unknown by Juvia.

When he was home, such as tonight, he made a point to spend time with her like this.

It wasn't much, but he felt pretty guilty keeping things from her.

He would have told her, but he didn't want her to worry.

Just seeing the dark marks spread on his body worried her enough.

He couldn't have her knowing that he was concerned as well.

After dinner, they went to the backyard to check the laundry.

They were still damp, but Gray didn't mind.

He was uncomfortable wearing her shorts at first, but he actually found them to be quite comfortable and the range of motion he got in them was pretty great.

"Juvia is sorry, Gray Sama..." She whispered as they entered the home.

As far as she was concerned, this took away "wife points".

He patted her head and shrugged.

"Don't worry about it. These are kinda nice." He gestured to the tiny black shorts covering his infamous skin display.

Her face heated and she covered her mouth.

He mentally kicked himself.

He knew what that look meant.

"Gray Samaaa~! Not only is he in Juvia's shorts, but he likes it!"

She was on cloud nine.

"Oy! Don't make it dirty!" He scolded.

After dealing with her outburst, he went to his room.

He lay in the center of the bed, limbs outstretched to take over the whole area.

His eyes roamed the ceiling, searching for sleep.

Somehow, one of his hands found it's way to the shorts.

Strangely, it wasn't tugging at the fabric to remove them like usual.

His fingers were gently rubbing the material of the waistband.

He was just absentmindedly playing with the fabric.

He pulled his hand away and put both behind his head.

His eyes slowly shut and he let out a deep sigh.

As he drifted to sleep, all he saw was blue.

* * *

Juvia's eyes fluttered open as her body shuddered in response to an unwelcome chill.

She must have kicked off her blankets during the night.

Gray's aversion to fabric coverings was rubbing off on her.

She sat up and squinted at the abnormally bright light coming from her window.

Her lower half twisted to the side to rest her feet on the cold wood floors.

Standing to her feet, she shuffled to the window.

She smiled brightly when she saw what waited outside.

Fresh fallen snow. Lots of it.

She clasped her hands against her chest and swooned.

This would be her and Gray's first snow since moving in together.

She ran to his room, excited to share this moment with him.

She knocked energetically and bounced gleefully as she waited for him to open the door.

She waited for a good, long, silent minute before gently twisting the knob and cracking the door open.

Through the crack, she saw an empty bed.

Slowly, she pushed the door open a little more.

Empty.

The bed was a mess, and there were a couple of random pieces of clothing tossed about.

As she ventured further into the room, a glint of light caught her eye from the top of the dresser.

Neatly placed on the center of the dresser was Gray's silver cross necklace.

She couldn't remember a time he had been without it.

She began to worry.

Quickly, she raced to the backyard.

Nothing but snow.

She ran out the front door and noticed very light tracks in the snow leading from the door.

She followed them until the trail disappeared.

The tracks faded away on the edge of the small town.

Tears welled in her eyes.

He had left town without a word.

He left all the time, but usually he would warn her when he was leaving.

This time, she hadn't heard anything. The night before he acted like everything was normal.

He left his necklace.

She went to her neighbors and asked if they remembered seeing him or hearing him mention going anywhere.

Nobody knew anything. Nobody could help her.

She was alone.

She entered their home and went to his room.

If he left, she was going to straighten his room up so that it would be ready for him when he returned.

She made the bed and picked up the clothes.

She stood in front of the dresser and hovered her icy fingertips over the silver cross.

He left this here as a sign.

She was sure of it.

He wouldn't leave it behind for no reason.

He never took it off.

He was going to come back.

She didn't know when, but he would.

Even though he left her a sign, she still felt the pain of his absence.

She didn't understand what was so wrong that he couldn't tell her where he was going.

She didn't understand why he kept leaving or why it felt like this time he might not come back.

She kept telling herself to believe in him and she did believe, but this didn't feel like a simple stepping out.

This felt serious and it was torturous.

Slowly, she carried the cross to her room.

She opened her top drawer and set it inside.

She stared at the inside of the drawer blankly for a minute, feeling something off, but unsure of what.

She blinked slowly as her eyes carefully examined the contents of the space.

Gently, she began moving things around, checking every article of clothing.

Everything seemed to be accounted for at first.

She still felt like something was missing.

Her hands carefully rested on the edge of the drawer as she thought long and hard about what she had put in the drawer.

She gasped when she remembered.

The shorts.

She searched all of her drawers, under her bed, all over Gray's room, everywhere.

They were gone.

She took the cross out of her drawer and took a seat in an old dining chair in front of the snow covered window.

The snow fell harder, matching the heaviness in her heart.

The more her heart ached, the worse the snow got.

Tears streamed silently down her face.

He had made an exchange.

His cross for her shorts.

Surely this was a promise of his return.

But why did it hurt so bad?

He was gone and she was left with nothing but frozen rain and a silver cross.

That and her flickering hope that he will return.

A hope fueled by something borrowed.

* * *

 ***AUTHOR'S NOTE***

I guess you can consider this a prequel to When The Snow Falls.

I hope you enjoyed! :)


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